Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, A.6

The present notice is issued under Article 4(2) of the decision of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) dated 12 July 2007 concerning the electronic filing of patent applications and other documents^[ 1 ].

1. Filing European patent applications using PaTrAS^INT software

1.1 European patent applications, including all drawings, may also be filed in electronic form with the DPMA using the PaTrAS^INT software provided free of charge by the DPMA.

1.2 Users of PaTrAS^INT software must comply not only with the technical and legal requirements which apply when European patent applications are filed electronically with the DPMA^[ 2 ], but also with the EPC's provisions and the EPO's rules governing the electronic filing of patent applications and other documents.

2. Electronic filing

2.1 Electronic filing may be effected online or on electronic data carriers.

2.2 European patent applications are transmitted to the DPMA's electronic filing office using the access and transmission software made available by the DPMA on the basis of the OSCI (Online Services Computer Interface) protocol^[ 3 ].

2.3 A list of the admissible data carriers and data formats is published on the DPMA website.

2.4 If European patent applications are filed on electronic data carriers, they must be accompanied by a paper document identifying the applicant and/or his representative, indicating an address for correspondence and listing the files stored on the data carrier.

3. Form of the documents for European patent applications

3.1 Users of PaTrAS^INT software must comply with the DPMA's published technical conditions when preparing their European patent applications.

3.2 For applications containing a sequence listing, the provisions governing the filing of sequence listings are applied mutatis mutandis.

4. Encryption

4.1 European patent applications prepared using PaTrAS^INT software are encrypted for transmission.

5. Acknowledgement of receipt

5.1 As soon as a European patent application has been transmitted via the OSCI protocol, the applicant is notified that a message has been received and is given a document reference number to assist with any queries with the DPMA.

5.2 A few minutes later, the acknowledgement of receipt under Rule 35(2) EPC can be collected from the applicant's mailbox in the Virtual Post Room (VPR). It is issued once the files received under point 1 above have been scrutinised. If the VPR cannot be reached, the procedure can be repeated later.

5.3 The receipt includes the identity of the Office, the date and time when the application was received, a reference or application number allocated by the Office and a list of the files transmitted.

5.4 The "message received" notification and the receipt itself do not imply the accordance of a filing date.

6. Previous notices

This notice replaces the notice from the European Patent Office dated 19 March 2004 concerning the electronic filing of European patent applications with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) (OJ EPO 2004, 270).